This is a set of four activities about spacecraft design. Learners will use the information learned in previous lessons, combined with their own creativity and problem-solving skills, to design and test a parachuting probe that will withstand a fall...(View More) from a high point, land intact, be able to descend slowly, float in liquid, and cost the least to launch into space. Includes a glossary, information for families, and guidance for deepening the science. This is lesson 7 of 8 in the Jewel of the Solar System: From Out-of-School to Outer Space an adaptation for afterschool programs of the Cassini-Huygens educational product Reading, Writing, and Rings.(View Less)

This is an activity about comet composition. Learners will explore the physical characteristics of comets by reaching into a series of boxes and feeling the materials and structures within. They will describe what they observe and speculate on comet...(View More) characteristics being modeled in each box, opening the discussion about the nature of these icy bodies and begin to compare them to other members of our solar system.(View Less)

This is an activity about modeling the effect of wind on a sandy surface. Learners will use trays of sand and straws to recreate surface features of images of Mars. Participants test their ideas about how some of the features on Mars might have been...(View More) produced. This is activity 4 of 9 in Mars and Earth: Science Learning Activities for After School.(View Less)

Learners will use a variety of resources to conduct research to try to find answers to the questions they generated in previous activities. They continue to work the way scientists do by communicating what they learned from their research about Mars...(View More) and present questions they still have and that others might want to think about researching in the future. This is activity 8 of 9 in Mars and Earth: Science Learning Activities for After School.(View Less)

This is an activity about creating impacts on sandy surfaces. Learners will use trays of sand and a variety of solid objects to model the effects of "impactors" on the surface. This is activity 6 of 9 in Mars and Earth: Science Learning Activities...(View More) for After School.(View Less)